Tag Archives: allergy

For those of you living with food allergies / intolerance, dining out can be an awkward, frustrating and even scary experience. It’s bad enough when you have one food issue but when you have two, like me. It seems our menu choices can be slim to none, often resulting in not dining out at all for fear of being “accidentally dosed”. Whether you are trying to avoid gluten and dairy or soy and or nuts, it seems like the things that make us sick are in everything we eat these days. ( That statement feels like a topic for another post!)

But with the increased awareness of food allergies and intolerancee, many restaurants are getting wise.

I have found that if the establishment has a full kitchen then my options open up , because there is a professional cook on site that I can communicate my needs to. It makes a little thing like dining out possible for me again.

Like last night.

Kudos to the Red Lobster in Oshawa (311 King St W Oshawa, ON L1J 2J8
(905) 434-1143) and the amazing staff there!

I went with my family to celebrate a friend’s birthday and our wait staff and the manager bent over backwards to accommodate my food issues. The staff were sympathetic to my needs and treated my request with respect. The manager came to our table personally to explain what could be done to ensure my meal would be safe for me. Then they prepared my food with separate utensils to avoid cross contamination.

BTW- I had broiled sole, garlic shrimp, rice and broccoli and it was delish!

I didn’t think I’d do this…. I’m not one to start something and not see it through whatever “it” may be, especially when I enjoy the “thing”.

If anyone is out there actually reading this, you must be thinkin'”What the heck is this chick ranting about??

In this case, I’m writing about “blog silence”. At least I think that’s what you call it when someone starts a blog, posting at fairly regular intervals, then stops posting, without explanation. I actually feel disappointed when my favourite bloggers do this so, when I started my own blog…I didn’t think I would become guilty of becoming silent.

It all started with a wicked cold that I came down with. It knocked the #$%@ out of me and lingered for weeks. I thought I had pneumonia.
Then, as usual, my sinuses started giving me trouble. It took several prescriptions before I started to feel myself again, although the polyps have returned. Now it looks like I may be surgery bound again to remove them.

Arghhhh!

Sometimes I wonder if the gf/df diet is worth it. I mean, it’s a lot of work being aware of what I put in my mouth. I do it because it’s supposed to help keep my sinus polyps from growing back . But it doesn’t stop them, it just slows them down a bit, so start to I wonder, if it’s worth it. Then I go and do something silly like eat a cheeseburger. Then I feel guilty. Then I beat myself up for being a hypocrite because how can I for go on about eating well if I cave and eat something as bad for me as a cheeseburger? Then I question my ethics and on and on.

I finally came to my senses during a conversation with a friend who was trying to quit smoking. I used to smoke a pack and a half a day before I finally quit, nine years ago. I was reminded that it took several tries before I finally quit. I was also reminded that even after “quitting” a bad habit, it’s ok to slip up occasionally.

We all make mistakes. I’m glad to be back and I want to hear from anyone that may be reading this and has gone through a similar situation.

I also have so many ideas for recipes that I want to share. My local Farmer’s Markets have been brimming with an amazing assortment of delectables to be inspired by. Now that August has arrived, three of my favourite foods are in season: corn, blueberries and peaches.

Snickerdoodles are one of my all time favourite cookies. Not only is the name fun to say, but I get a bizarre satisfaction out of the fact that my spell checker really thinks I’ve spelled it wrong. : ) The idea of using them as the topping for apple cobbler is brilliant. But it’s not quite apple season. It’s peach season and I can’t think of a better way to up the yum factor of a peach cobbler, than to borrow Rachel’s idea.
If you find yourself near a farmer’s market or a farm stand where peaches are sold, stop and pick up a bunch, this is one of the best things you can do to a peach.

Enjoy!

Dee
For the snickerdoodles, I use my go -to snickerdoodle recipe, inspired by a recipe from Cybele Pascal’s book “The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook”.

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Toss peaches with sugar, bourbon, and cornstarch in a 2-qt. nonreactive
baking dish and bake in middle of oven 10 minutes. Set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 375F

Whisk together flour mix, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

In separate bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the shortening, the first measure of granulated sugar and the brown sugar. Mix with a whisk or on medium speed until fluffy.

Add vanilla and egg. Mix well for approx 20 seconds.

Add the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the rice milk.

Roll the dough into 24 heaping tablespoon size balls, or use a one ounce measuring scoop.

Roll dough in cinnamon sugar and place biscuits side by side, covering the peach mixture.

Bake extra snickerdoodles in top third of oven for 10-13 minutes.
Allow to cool on sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to rack.

NOTE** If you’re like me and love the flavour of real vanilla bean, you may have an empty pod kickin’ around your kitchen. I tend to put empty vanilla pods in jars of sugar, then pull them out to add to stewed fruit.
Adding an empty vanilla bean to the peach mixture is magical. ; )

This is the last of my 3 part story of how I got here. If you have read the previous two chapters, thanks for coming back.

Breathing is even better when you don’t have strange blobs growing in your nose.
Gross eh? Yep, but it’s true.

So…why am I still on a quest? My polyps came back! Three months after my first surgery, I was back on prednisone. I’ve been through several prescriptions to reduce the size of the polyps. Sometimes, it helps but mostly it just slows them down. In May of 2011 I had a second surgery to remove more polyps. Six weeks later, they were back again. Something had to change.

Now by the time I had my second surgery, I was in a relationship with a wonderful man, who introduced me to a friend who is a nutritionist, specializing in people dealing with food allergies and intolerances. She suggested my sinus issues may be food related. After some education and some convincing, I went gluten and dairy free. I figured I had nothing to loose except my sanity. Although, some say I never had any to begin with. ; )

At first I thought, this won’t be so bad…I’ll just switch over to gluten free bread and use margarine and I’ll be good…..Man was I wrong! Did you know that gluten and dairy are in practically everything? Well, maybe not everything. If it’s a processed, pre-packaged, ready made food, chances are it’s full of gluten or dairy, or both.

I had already been in consultation with a friend who is also a nutritionist and I did get some advice on what not to eat as well as a few brand names to look for in the grocery store. However, I’d always loved flipping though my collection of cookbooks and cooking magazines for inspiration, so off I went to Chapters.

The first book that gave me hope of being a happy eater once again was “Cooking for Isaiah”, by Silvana Nardone. All the recipes in the book looked everyday easy, made my mouth water and best of all each recipe was completely gluten and dairy free. I thought, well if this is what I have to eat, I can do this!

Since then, I’ve been testing and converting of my own recipes along with the several books, blogs, and other resources, full of gluten and dairy free recipes I’ve found to inspire me in the kitchen.

My nose is still a little stuffy, but much, much better these days. I’m still battling polyps and searching for the piece in my puzzle that will keep them from returning. But my asthma is more manageable and I’m much less congested. : )

Now it’s my turn to help….If any of this sounds familiar to you, I’d love to hear from you.

In the up coming posts I’ll be sharing info about my attempts at living a balanced, healthy, gluten and dairy free lifestyle.